Another fire that broke out at the Acropolis Mall at Kasba here on Friday afternoon was brought under control by firefighters after two hours of efforts with the help of 15 fire tenders.
Luckily, no casualty or injury was reported in the incident.
Preliminary reports indicated that the fire originated from the fourth floor of the mall, where the food court is located.
As soon as the fire broke out, visitors were evacuated from that section of the shopping mall. Soon, the entire area was covered by a thick layer of black smoke causing panic among the people present at the mall. Unable to withstand the smoke, while some fell sick, others were guided down the stairs amidst the thick smoke. The rest were hurriedly evacuated down the stairs later.
According to an eyewitness, the black smoke spread across the three floors of the shopping mall and caused suffocation among many people present there.
Preliminary reports suggest that mall employees took shelter at the nearby Geetanjali Stadium. On the fourth floor of the mall, there is a cinema hall along with the food court where several people had gathered to spend the weekend.
The sight of the billowing smoke caused panic in everyone present. Fire officials said their efforts to douse the flames were hampered by the black smoke. The firefighters are working with oxygen masks on. The power supply has been snapped. Currently, efforts are on to break a glass obstructing the smoke for its release. Two hydraulic ladders have been brought in to reach the source of the fire.
According to the police and fire officials, the fire is now largely under control and no one is trapped inside the building. State Fire Minister Sujit Bose arrived at the scene after hearing about the fire. He assured of an investigation to determine the cause of the fire and said a forensic team would be involved.
On Tuesday last, there was a fire incident in a multi-story building opposite Allen Park on Park Street. The top floor of the Park Centre building housed a nightclub and restaurant. The fire spread rapidly due to the presence of various inflammable materials inside the restaurant.
Barely four days after the incident, another fire broke out in Kolkata.
Krishna Jha, senior operations manager, at Acropolis Mall, said, “We, at Acropolis Mall, are a responsible corporate house. We have been running the mall successfully for the last nine years and no such untoward incident happened. We will take adequate measures to find out what exactly happened and conduct an internal investigation. We are happy that no casualties occurred in the incident.”